Most of Scottish Twitter has been enjoying itself greatly for the last few hours after England’s exit from the World Cup, but scattered in amongst the amusing memes has been a fair amount of angst about victors Croatia – a nation of 4 million people – being in the final when Scotland once again failed to qualify.

And while we’ll more than happily listen to any amount of criticism of the unbelievably incompetent, hapless clowns who’ve been in charge of the SFA/SPL/SPFL for the last several decades, that judgement is a bit harsh on the players and coaches and the nation as a whole. Because there really hasn’t been much in it.

Scotland’s qualification for World Cup 2018 hinged and ultimately faltered on a split second and a single badly-chosen pass in stoppage time.

That really is how close it was.

Because if Stuart Armstrong had passed the ball into the acres of empty space on his left in the dying moments of the June 2017 qualifier against England at Hampden Park with Scotland leading 2-1, rather than trying a pointlessly harder pass to the right, we’d have held on, taken three points instead of one, and finished the group in 2nd place with 20 points – exactly the same position and points total that Croatia got from their own six-team group, with the same number of wins and draws.

That would have seen us finish joint third in the table of the top-runners-up, displacing the Republic Of Ireland in the playoffs.

That would have meant having a two-legged tie against the likes of Greece, Northern Ireland, Sweden or – funnily enough – Croatia, who Scotland have never lost to.

And while of course Scotland are more than capable of losing a playoff to any of those teams, they’re also more than capable of winning one. And that would have sent us to the finals, where who knows, we might have landed almost as favourable a draw as England did and made some progress in a tournament where all the big teams bowed out early and the competition was wide open.

The statistics above pretty clearly show that we are not a significantly worse side than Croatia (who won four of their qualifiers 1-0 and dropped points to lowly Finland just like Scotland did with Lithuania), and yet they’re in the final – against a team that we ALSO beat home and away the last time we faced them in competitive matches.

Nothing that Croatia have achieved in Russia was beyond Scotland’s capabilities, had we only held on for that win at Hampden. Instead, we all know what happened next. But that single stupid, unnecessary pass is still one heck of a tiny margin of error to be beating ourselves up over.

In Scotland – and not just in football – we have a tendency to think we’re a lot worse than we actually are. It’s something that’s always worth keeping in mind when we berate ourselves for not being able to do stuff.

Over a twenty year 10 attempted qualifying run, Scotland are where they are because that’s where they deserve to be. Unfortunately we’ve found our level. One. Bit of bad luck here and there shouldn’t make much difference over such a long period of time.

There were about two minutes of added time left when Armstrong passed, we’d probably still have found a way of cocking it up.

Incidentally, the Croatian FA are very unpopular in the country and there is currently a corruption investigation going on. Many fans didn’t travel initially to the finals as they were so disgusted by their FA and also with their players for failing to condemn the suits.

Great analysis again Rev. I would echo the comments about the SFA and the conditioning we are subjected to. However, listening to the self defeating tones of the Scotland coach, ( talking like he still has a broken jaw)” for a small country like Scotland just to qualify for the European championships is a great achievement”.. Really – Winners just don’t think like that!!
I love our curlers, but they, as an example, celebrate getting a silver medal before they get to actually compete for the gold! Canada don’t!!
A winning mentality – just sayin.

Each and every pub in Scotland that wants Sky TV needs to pay ~20K. There is a huge market for football in Scotland. However how much of the TV revenue gets put back into our game ? When you buy a pint in a pub showing sky TV then almost all the revenue goes to pay over inflated EPL wages.

Similarly BBC. The wages paid to Lineker and Shearer is more that they paid for entire Scottish football highlights. Surely Scottish football should be getting 8.4% (pop share) of what BBC pays for the English highlights.

As long as MCleish doesn’t ignore the fact that at the moment the core of any Scotland team lies in the players at one end of the great Glasgow divide just to appease the knuckledraggers and Scottish MSM.
Strachan nearly pulled it off when he actually put a team on the park who at least had the technique,skills, and youth to make a game of it against England, although none of them had the physical stature and body strength of that giant Croatian midfielder Luca the Wizard.
Appointing a tired old Alex McLeish was still a mistake.
Like Strachan he’ll rely on middle aged Anglos instead of going with bright young athletes plying their trade up here.
McLeish has been all ’round the block and back again, and his appointment as Scotland manager, like Strachan’s, is an Old Boys Pension Pot for his retirement.
You can bet that there will be a few Ranjurs men suddenly make the first eleven just so that the SFA can attempt to fill Hampden.
Caldwell and McFadden: great goals, brought a tingle to my back and a lump in my throat.
Despite all the gushing euphoria, England are still half a dozen short of having a team that would make a dent in international football.
Yet ‘our boys’ are being tipped to win the Euros, and on to the World Cup in Qatar.
The Scotland job is seen as a sinecure, no more, no less.
Is it a ‘masonic’ thing?

Does anyone else get the impression that the blazers at the SFA are more interested in how team England are doing, rather than focusing on improving the Scottish game and national team?

For me, I can’t see any ambition or determination to improve things in Scotland, more a pathetic acceptance that Scotland are a wee pretendy football team that will never achieve anything? Perhaps the blazers secretly desire a UK football team? If their anglophylic hearts are not really in Scotland, perhaps they should step aside and let someone else have a go.

When we achieve iScotland, I think we should work our arses off on every international event, tournament, sporting competition etc.. Get ourselves seen on the world ‘stage’ – let everyone know Scotland as joined the club of nation states.

Means spending dosh but that should be seen as investment.

Tourism is big, and we need to make it bigger.

Jeez, as Stu points out, we might even win something!

And unlike some we won’t mention, iScotland must be seen a good natured nation for whom taking part matters as much as winning.

The management of our national game is terrible, kow-towing to the two behemoths whose baleful influence has stunted our game and having a disproportionate number of Britnats in senior positions, who have no faith in our country.

The new national manager actively campaigned for a No vote in 2014 along with many OG celebrities/has-beens so what chance does the team have with Toom Tabards like that? The only footballer I remember who came out as yes was Michael Stewart but his career was virtually over by then.

Before the first Indyref my mother in law (mid 60s) had the attitude we couldn’t go alone ” we can’t do it” she said. I shouted my kids through and said your gramma thinks you can’t do it so dont try anything because you will fail.

They both looked at me and thought WTF is he on about. A usual response from them. Of course I didn’t mean it I said it to make a point. The point was made and gramma backtracked instantly.

She tells me she voted for Independence but I am not convinced.

The point of my story is the difference between our generations. One broken and beat. The other we couldn’t possibly be worse than we are now. Lets give it a go.

To paraphrase Henry ford: you can or you can’t. Whichever one you believe you will be right.

Also is there any way they (Libby Brooks) could have framed the narrative to get the point hammered into readers about how terrible Wings and Stu are by using more ‘provocative’ type words to describe ‘blogger’ Stu’s ‘notorious’ ‘blog’ as being ‘on the wane’?

We could make life a lot easier for Scottish Managers if ‘Sports Pages’ were banned from newspapers. They expect the team to win every match and if they don’t the Headlines in foot high letters, So & So, must go, he failed etc. written by people who know even less about football than I do, and that is Zilch, Zero!!

Scotland invented the modern game. Before that it was still running and picking up the ball. Playing the ball on the ground is soccer and that was invented in Scotland. What went before was a bastardisation of rugby!

Can they not have their wages docked for making such obviously stupid mistakes at crucial matches? I know nothing about football, except we had to stay quiet when matches were on the tv as kids so I hated it.

When the commonwealth games were held in, and paid for by Scotland, I knew someone who was an arts curator up from Eng, specifically for the games, a nice job. When they said they were going to New Zealand to look for artists, I asked why not look in Scotland we have plenty! Oh no, ‘Scottish art is too perochial’ was the answer. Disgracful attitude, very damaging.

It’s still massively underfunded compared to rUK, very few opportunities. The Scotgov have tried but they have other priorities like, mitigating UKgov disgusting ‘austerity’, cushioning the blows, ie the bedroom tax, ILF, EMA etc.

Scotland needs to get the hell out of the so called union, it sucks the life out. Scotland could do far better in all areas including culturally, with full levers of power to spend money on what it chooses, not what it’s bullying next door neighbour chooses for it!

It was a crucial error and rush of blood to the head. That ball need to go left to the player in the clear or be punted to row Z at the far end of the park. Either option would have done. Passing to the England player should have been last on his list of options.

“I have been told that Queen’s Park is the oldest registered football club in the world now if that is true how can England claim to be the home of football ???”

I already told you why, Blair. The history of the game is that the oldest authenticated football club in the World originated in Stockbridge in Edinburgh and their club records are there to prove it. For them to have these preserved records means there had to be organised football going on in Edinburgh for the Stockbridge team had to have other teams to compete with.
So these early club records are detailing a organised football league and that means there must have been a set of rules that they used.

Then again The Queen’s Park set of rules was copied by the English Football Association and it was those copied rules that subsequently became the standards that applied to World football.

Then we have the facts about, “The Scotch Professors”. This came about because the Scottish game remained staunchly Amateur, and Queen’s Park remains so to this day, while the English game became professional and they signed up the, so called, “Scotch Professors”, for the very good reason the Scottish, “passing”, and, “Dribbling”, game was far superior than the English kick and rush”, game.

The English game saw the ball, much like in primary school playground games. with the ball kicked either up or down the pitch depending upon which side had possession and the entire team dashing as a body after the ball – only for their opponents, upon gaining possession, doing exactly the same.

The Scots wingers would run and dribble the ball and the inside forwards would react with the wingers and accept a passed ball, even if the ball was passed back towards their own goals.

The forward could all switch positions and if a winger drifted inward the inside forward would drift towards the wing and good two footed players would swap across the park. The aim being, of course, to keep possession of the ball until there was the chance of a strike.

The history of the main English clubs was greatly influenced by those, “Scottish Professors”, and many of England’s top teams were started by Scots. Which is why there are so many English clubs with Rampant Lions on their coats of Arms. Chelsea for example. Man United as another.

Just listened what I believe was a clip of the BBC Scotland controller claiming 4 out of 5 viewers in Scotland watch Match of the Day. This is patently nonsense as this would infer the viewing figures in Scotland would be around 4 million. A quick check that the viewing figures for Match of the Day rarely makes the top 30 (below 3.25 million for the whole UK). Even at best the highest figure would be around 270k (or about 1 in 20).

Also the fact that Scottish football is regularly punted to after MOTD and after midnight might indicate why MOTD is higher. Plus the Scottish programme looks a bargain basement production.

Nonsense to justify spending on English game not being reflected by spending in Scotland. Remember the BBC Scotland controller is the BBC version of Mundell, there to defend the status quo of London control.

If Mundell had decided to give up politics and become a monk, taking a vow of celibacy, and Oliver had delivered his awful speech and Stu said that he wished that David had embraced his calling earlier would that have been deemed hateful towards celibate monks? I think not.

The inclusion of the word homosexuality in a comment does not automatically make a candidate for a hate crime simply because others cannot use the word without being hateful. Context is everything.

Still on football, article in today’s Guardian about Luka Modric stating that English pundits’ lack of respect for Croatian teamn spurred them to victory. These are the ones who claimed ‘football’s coming home’!

The reason that Scotland’s national football team do not appear on free to air TV such as BBC and ITV is I believe purely political.

In the 90’s because of the massive growth of satellite TV, many sports were being snapped up by the satellite channels that you would have to pay a subscription to watch.

The public were quite rightly complaining about this so the government brought in a new law, the Broadcasting Act 1996.

This gave the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport the power to designate key sporting events as “listed events”. These events were deemed to be of national importance and would be made available on the free to air channels for everybody to watch without paying a subscription. So the likes of FA Cup Final and Scottish Cup final, Grand National, Wimbledon etc were all included.

Then in 2008 the Labour government announced an independent review of the list was to be set up. As an interested party the BBC gave it’s opinion to the Independent panel in 2009.

“In an increasingly fragmented society, the ability to broadcast, freely available to all, those major events that can unite communities and deliver social value cannot be underestimated…”

A key part of the BBC’s submission is the “importance of particular sporting events in the devolved nations”.

This argument sees the inclusion on the list of all home nation football qualifiers for World Cups and European Championships in the respective nations, the Welsh Six Nations and autumn rugby internationals in Wales as well as the Commonwealth Games.

It wasn’t considered though by the government until July 2010, by which time it was now the Tory/Lib Dems in power. The new Minister for Sport and the Olympics Hugh Robertson announced:

“I fully support the principle of protecting major sports events for free to air coverage. But with Digital Switchover concluding in 2012, this will result in the widespread availability of a significantly increased number of television channels, many of which will be free to air. Add to this the BBC’s Strategy Review, which will cover sports rights, and the Ofcom Pay TV Review, the broadcasting context for this decision is increasingly unclear.”

“The current economic climate also points to us not making a decision at this time which could adversely impact on sport at the grassroots. I have therefore decided to defer any review until 2013, when we will look at this again.”

It wasn’t looked at again in 2013 as promised and in fact Westinster published another document, “Sporting Future” in Dec 2015 and it had this to say about “Listed Events”.

Broadcasting

Sport loses much of its ability to deliver positive outcomes for the public when people do not have the ability to watch or experience it, whether live or on television, radio or online.

Government does not propose to reopen discussion on the Ofcom Code on Listed Events. Rather than being told by government what to show and what not to show on
free-to-air television, it is for NGBs and other rights holders to strike the right balance between reaching a wide audience and using their rights to generate as much revenue as possible.

If the government had gone ahead as recommended in 2009 and made them listed events, then they would have had to show these matches live.

The likelyhood of BBC or ITV reaching a deal with the SFA for the showing of World Cup or UEFA qualifying matches live is just about zero.

We wis robbed by the Tories again and I’d say that it was for political rather than financial reasons. No way are they going to allow football to “unite communities” when they have an Independence fight on their hands.

Not sure what relevance BTL comments have, does that indicate that what someone else says is proof of your opinion. Drat I’ve travelled with some pretty outspoken taxi drivers, does that indicate I must also hold their views?

OT
Watching Scottish Open Golf
The chairman of th sponsor, Aberdeen Standard Investments, paid a generous tribute to the Scottish Government and the FM in particular for helping them on “every possible way” to ensure the success of the event.

The answer to International football is this.
Scrap the current world cup, then have a National world league.
Approach the youth players and ask them club or country? If they choose to play for their country (if they are good enough) then they get the option to join their National side.
There would then be a world league where every National side would play each other (just like football leagues) and every 4 years have the new form of World Cup with, for example, the top 36 playing for the prize.
Just think – you could have International games every week/fortnight/month and because the players are National players there would be no excuses from clubs pulling players from International games etc. In addition, as each team would be playing each other, there would be no advantage as there is in the current situation – i.e. with players in certain leagues having the benefit of stimulating competitors (in the likes of the Champions League etc.).
Players signed up to maybe a 5 or even 10 year contract would then have the ability to join club football at the end of their International career.
Also – managers have to come from the team country (i.e. Scottish Manager for Scottish National team etc.).
Just a thought.

Cannot believe Aaron Bastani taken in by Limmy tweets….guy needs to take a chill pill and get off his high horse….he certainly proved his real credentials are more………… Socialism 0 BritNat 1…..One would have expected this response from a Britnat Tory but proves if you scratch the surface etc etc

Just been having a quick comparison between Croatia and Scotland,Croatia is only about two thirds the size of Scotland and has only about four fifths the population but obviously they have ten times the heart of Scots,just shows what independence can do to a nation and its peoples own sense of self worth and not just in a footballing sense.

Rev. Stu. “But that single stupid unnecessary pass is still one heck of a tiny margin of error to be beating our selves over”

It was seen as a big enough error by the BBC Scotland football team to work and agitate to get rid of Strachan. Frequently encouraging fans to rubbish Gordon during interviews. They have a lot to answer for.
Their track record goes back many years. Remember Traynor doing everything he could to take down an injured Gary Caldwell just before A Scotland KO.
Then Chick Young and Traynor rubbishing George Burley from his first days in charge of Scotland. Eventually making it impossible for him to command respect in the dressing room. He had been manager of the year in England and did very well at hearts.

It’s the BBC and the rest of our press that beats up our team and management. They put a lot of effort into it.

Traynor used to tell listeners it took a team of 40 odd people to get his radio programme out.

You are, of course, quite correct, Stuart. We do at times display the Scottish cringe mentality, and we do somewhat revel in our alleged inability to perform on any world stage.

The reality is, of course, that this is what 311 years of rule by another nation leads to. Emasculation takes many forms, from the football pitch to daily politics in Scotland, amid the relentless barrage of lies and innuendo from the MSM.

That mindset will end when Scotland becomes independent of rule by and from England.

And that, dear friends, will be when we can look forward to REALLY showing the world what Scotland can do.

Cuilean Dont base your view on a Nation on a few arrogant twats, i could find six like them within ten minutes walk from my house, doesnt mean every body on Arran is arrogant.
I have visited iceland and found nothing but kindness and a very friendly welcome , it reminded me like my village where people talk to strangers, wondering about Iceland everybody gave you a hello when you passed them in the street. I was also invited into strangers houses for a chat. The ones I spoke to were very interested in the Scottish constitunional question.
I would fo back anytime, and its only 90 mins flight from Glasgow 🙂

The article is using football as an example of “the cringe” where in Scotland many fail to have enough belief in our ability to succeed. Whereas the reality is that small Independent nations can and do succeed in running their own affairs.

“In Scotland – and not just in football – we have a tendency to think we’re a lot worse than we actually are. It’s something that’s always worth keeping in mind when we berate ourselves for not being able to do stuff.

Could it be that if Scotland and England both qualified it would be perceived by Fifa’s high priests as ‘England’ having two goes? England, the proper one, better for business?

_______

Didn’t hear so much a peep about this when *my* country reached the semi-finals of the European Championships two years ago. (For once, we punched above our weight and went further than England, even topping the group that we shared with them.)

And did you see the deluge of Press coverage on their achievements – “our boys” representing this “family of nations”?

Nah – me, neither.

Or any mention of sky diving onto bus stands or smashing up emergency ambulances and taxis by any Welshy during that glorious summer?

Their expectations were low for the WC after Iceland(Euros)and because their Britnat media had been trashing Russia,Putin,Ultras,Novichok etc since they lost out to Russia in their bid to host the thing.Very sour grapes.

So instead of WC hype,we have had years of Russia bad.

They lost to Belgium and Croatia, beat Panama,Tunisia,Sweden,and Colombia(pens).I wouldn’t say they have over acheived looking at those results,but they do have some fast lively players up front and know how to win free kicks and pens,and how to convert.

Given that I would expect Italy,Netherlands,Spain and Germany all to be considerably stronger in next Euros and Qatar,they may not have witnessed the sea change they appear to think they have.

Anyhows,I can’t say I’m very sorry to see the great Satan going home early.

They should however first be presented with the award for the ugliest and dopiest looking team in the magnificent 2018 World Cup in Mother Russia.

@Ken500 says:
12 July, 2018 at 11:09 amSectarianism has destroyed the football industry in Scotland and damaged the Scottish economy. People are sick of it. No wonder the terraces are empty.

Unfortunately the one place the terraces (and seats) are NOT empty are in the grounds of the two clubs which thrive off of the irreligious bigotry in this country. It’s the clubs which never had much if any of that which have poor crowds (excepting maybe Aberdeen who are well out of the way of that nonsense).

You could say that bigotry has sucked support away from many teams towards the Old Firm (though it’s mostly about ‘glory hunters’ these days; the super big clubs created by bigotry win almost everything so they continue to suck fans away from other clubs).

Should add that I’m stating what’s happened over decades. A certain re-formed blue team hasn’t won anything major for a while now which is maybe why bigotry still thrives openly there more than anywhere else – when they don’t win they need to play the bigot card to keep support.

The reason Scotland did not qualify was because of inconsistency. Very harsh to single out one player. Scotland got pumped away from Slovakia, who were pish. Scotland also dropped points against Lithuania and Slovenia. Time and time again Scotland fail to do the business against the so called weaker teams. With good management consistency can be gained e.g compare and contrast R.Deila with B.Rodgers. It’s not one pass or one player but inconsistent team performances. Same in the last campaign dropping points against Georgia. Brendan Rodgers for Scotland , that will solve the problem. He can do it part time and still do Celtic and still get Scotland into a tournament.

@Blair Paterson says:
12 July, 2018 at 12:35 pmI have been told that Queen’s Park is the oldest registered football club in the world now if that is true how can England claim to be the home of football ???

Basically because an agreed set of rules were first set down in England (1863) which all other football clubs later came to adhere to. Many clubs played football before this but in different parts of the country had variations in rules – and this is between clubs (and schools/colleges) which actually played football, never mind rugby.

Was there ever such a kiss of death as Sarah Smith? Has anyone ever wondered what does Sarah Smith have to say on a subject? She adds so little to any analysis or debate and yet she is still the BBC Scotland Editor.

I suppose after hearing Donalda McKinnon’s tin-eared responses to Gary Robertson about Scottish Football coverage we should be under no illusions about the new BBC Scotland channel.

@Big Jock says:
12 July, 2018 at 12:52 pm
Scotland invented the modern game. Before that it was still running and picking up the ball.
==========================
====================

The passing game was developed in Scotland, particularly by Queens Park. As I noted earlier, first generally agreed rules were produced in England in 1863. Passing was allowed and happened but it was still early in the history of formalised football. Many players had a rugby attack mentality. They ran with the ball, dribbling or kick and chase until tackled or surrounded when they’d pass to the nearest team mate. Dribbling skill was the great thing.

Queens Park were the first team to see that if instead of players sticking close together (so that if the ball broke loose from a tackle the next team mate could take it on) if they spread out a little bit, with one or two players dropping slightly deeper, the ball could be moved quickly across the park, changing the point of attack and finding gaps to attack in. Dribbling still important as once passing found you space, you could charge past an isolated opponent.

It must have been a strange experience for teams that played the old way when they first played Queens, a bit like someone who’d only seen junior teams play, seeing Brazil strut their stuff.

I’ve read a few articles and here are some of the changes I picked up.

The white paper says that “Geographical Indicators” will be protected so the likes of Scotch whisky, Scottish Salmon, Arbroath Smokies etc.

They also want to keep using the European Health Insurance Card fall UK and EU citizens. Then there’s one that might be significant in terms of the “power grab” and what comes next.

The White Paper says “The UK Government will work with the devolved administrations to ensure that any modifications to the existing UK arrangements reflect the new relationship between the UK and the EU.”

“Sectarianism has destroyed the football industry in Scotland and damaged the Scottish economy. People are sick of it. No wonder the terraces are empty.”

Not so attendances are up in Scotland last season’s average attendance was 15,932, the highest level since 2006–07.

Went to Rip It Up Scotland at National Museum yesterday.

In the RUN RIG section there is a time line of the band, including personnel changes, but no mention whatsoever of Pete Wishart who played with them for 15 years. Why might that be?

Also it had a section of artists who found their Scottish voices and their political context but no mention of independence or that most support independence. However several plugs for Lulu but not Amy MacDonald who has sold 12 million records.

Must be just a coincidence by the unionist establishment that runs the Arts in Scotland.

I had bumped into a guy I had used to work with who, along with several other of my work colleagues, ‘came out’ during and after the referendum as Tory voters who had voted No.

He was ranting and raving about being glad England got knocked out etc. I wasn’t going to bother but I had remembered I still had a betting slip in my wallet for England last night. I took the slip out and innocently commiserated that my luck wasn’t in. With proof of an Indy supporter supporting England and as a Tory, he wasn’t had shut him up.

Anyway, we were talking and eventually got onto Brexit. He fully agreed that the Tories are a mess and at looks like we are ending up with a hard Brexit. He is like me, having to constantly change my lifestyle to get by but I just got the impression that he wasn’t too worried about that outcome and everything would end up fine.

I’ve read comments about similar comments on here about posters knowing Tories with a similar attitude but they are rich enough and out of the country for Brexit not to be a problem with them. But the self imposed ignorance of the ex-work colleague was an eye-opener.

As I had mentioned, him and a few other colleagues had come out as Tories but it wouldn’t surprise me if there are a lot more Tory supporters that I know who have declared their allegiances yet. It does astound me that they would align themselves with a party that is so against their economic interests.

In relation to empty football stands in Scotland comment, I’m sure it’s been pointed out on here before that proportionally, the Scottish game is one of the best supported in the world proportional to the population. Hibs and hearts also regularly sell out now a days.

I spent a short holiday in Iceland, and everyone I met was lovely, kind, intelligent and enquiring/interested. They couldnt do enough to help me see their spectacular country and to understand how well and fair they make it work, from politics to agriculture and everything in between. They made sure I enjoyed my time there, even though it was outwith any ‘tourist’ season. I have always wanted to go back and see more of the place and its lovely people, it would be a place I would happily live in if the winter nights weren’t so long, even longer than here in Scotland.

They were also inordinately fond of their surnames which I thought only highlighted their very small gene pool.

With a very few exceptions mostly of Danish origin, Icelanders do not have surnames.

They have patronymics, which change every generation, since they are formed from the person’s father’s (or very occasionally mother’s) first name, with a suffix: -son/sson for males and -dóttir/sdóttir for females.

These patronymics therefore reveal nothing whatsoever about the size of the Icelandic gene pool, reflecting instead popularity of first names. At various times there have been lists of “approved names” that parents must restrict themselves to, which obviously also limits variety.

This absence of surnames leads to everyone addressing each other by their first names, which is much friendlier, I think. You must have been exceptionally unlucky in your encounters.

They were also inordinately fond of their surnames which I thought only highlighted their very small gene pool.

With a very few exceptions mostly of Danish origin, Icelanders do not have surnames.

They have patronymics, which change every generation, since they are formed from the person’s father’s (or very occasionally mother’s) first name, with a suffix: -son/sson for males and -dóttir/sdóttir for females.

These patronymics therefore reveal nothing whatsoever about the size of the Icelandic gene pool, reflecting instead popularity of first names. At various times there have been lists of “approved names” that parents must restrict themselves to, which obviously also limits variety.

This absence of surnames leads to everyone addressing each other by their first names, which is much friendlier, I think. You must have been exceptionally unlucky in your encounters.

Jings, crivvens, help ma Boab, but, The Hootsmon didn’t half have a go at the Donald in their leader column today. I was amazed at how harsh they were on him.

Sadly, the btl comments were, as always, dominated by the most zoomer of Unionist zoomers. Some of them, not unexectedly, managed to turn the paper’s attack on Trump into another: “SNP Bad” rant, and abuse for: “Yon Nicola Sturgeon.”

The SNHS’s mental health sector may not be in as bad a state as Wee Wullie and the other Unionists keep trying to insist, but, I fear, when we do regain our independence, the number of Unionists going doolally will rise significantly, putting the service under eve greater pressure.

Such a shame Iceland go and spoil our goodwill towards then by killing an endangered blue whale this week. Stuff like that puts me off from ever visiting Iceland, or the Faroes and Norway come to that.

” … but, I fear, when we do regain our independence, the number of Unionists going doolally will rise significantly, putting the service under ever greater pressure.”

Nah! Socrates, don’t you know it is a precondition of unionism in Scots that to be a unionist you must inevitably already be doolally to at least 99.999%, (and the wee extra bit is due to abstentionism).

The new poll on Independence suggests when the population of Scotland reaches 55 years old it chooses to be a Tory supporting Brexit loving right wing fascist to hell with young people culture

I think somebody’s been fiddling the numbers in this new poll and you know why, I go on all the marches for our Independence and you know who are the largest age group, yes you guessed it the over 55s in their thousands, now that may be because many of our younger folk have to work or they have very young children to look after or they’re just too damn knackered from working the rest of the week to take part and that’s perfectly understandable

This poll also excluded 16/17 year olds and that says something else again really doesn’t it

I’ve had a theory about polling for a long time that polls are like newspapers and TV news they exist to influence and not to report actual facts and I’m afraid these pollsters are now tarnished by the same brush as our Burke and Hare *journalists* Burke and Hare the famous grave robbers who when they ran out of graves to rob just began killing people to fill their paid quota of bodies

BBC Shortbread wonders how a country smaller than Scotland can do so well at the WC. Muse thereon, Captain Obvious/Magnusson/Bird: #Decolonise The Brand.

Meanwhile, in other news, The Trumpster will dine on “British” salmon and “British” beef while Jon Snow @Channel 4 has an incredible multiplied organism about Irish/Welsh/Scottish guardsmen playing for Orange Delusional Person.

It probably won’t make any difference to those who think they are well off but perhaps we should be reminding the elderly that thanks to SNP they get free personal care in Scotland and care costs are not capped in England.

This is a double edged sword as many English pensioners sell up in England and come to Scotland for cheaper housing and a better lifestyle yet still believe the constant Daily Mail / BBC SNP Baaaad stories.

@Dr Jim 7.55: the three marches I have been on seem to have contained an inordinate number of oldsters like me and English folk, all “types” whom I have been told oppose independence by a large margin. It makes you think, as the Sunday Post used to say.

At 7 mins in Gordon reveals that Dominic Grieve has made a statement twice , that if no agreement can be reached re brexshit by Feb-March 2019 the government will be forced to declare a STATE OF EMERGENCY ,

What you say now and what you said previously Gordon certainly explains the hurried recruitment of staff and quarters by the vice-roy fluffy . Obviously this has been extensively discussed and agreed by fuhrer treeza and her stormtroopers , Nicola must now respond publicly and vociferously to Grieve’s comments and categorically STATE that the Scottish government and Scotland will not acquiesce to ANY form of emergency legislation imposed by wastemonster . If wastemonster attempts to impose it’s will on Scotland’s elected government and parliament Nicola will IMMEDIATELY enforce a UDI?
Also We are in ever more dangerous territory , these dictatorial imbeciles are looking to EXTINGUISH Scotland the NATION AND COUNTRY?

I’m still puzzling over that statement by wee Libby of The Grauniad, which in full is:

Since then, his online tactics have caused his popularity to wane among some Scottish independence activists, but his annual crowdfunder in March was his biggest yet, raising more than £153,000.

It’s worth deconstructing. On the face of it, it’s evidently self-contradictory, the second half an obvious flat denial of the assertion of the first half.

The assertion is completely unsubstantiated, which is not very professional. By what alternative measure is this supposed loss? Among whom exactly is this supposed loss?

And there we get to the nub of it, methinks. Who exactly is miffed by the success of WoS? The statement is characteristic of BritNat attack propaganda, based on the “some other idiot” technique with which we are very familiar. Find someone – anyone – who claims to support indy and feels let down by Stu and the statement is superficially true, even if substantively it’s complete bollocks.

There is of course one minority group of self-appointed would-be leftard leaders that immediately springs to mind, and it’s not too hard to imagine that they could have been bending the ear of the leftist paper’s eager reporter. Or equally, being proactively canvassed by her.

Though whether Stu was ever popular with that crowd is very debatable. They have always been high in the jealousy stakes.

One has to wonder though about the motivation of those supposedly in the independence movement who are only too happy, it would seem, to help out a fellow-travelling BritNat paper along the way.

The whole statement just reeks of the exceptionalism we have sadly come to expect from the usual suspects who straddle the indy divide.

Jason Smoothpiece @ 8.53pm
I agree Jason , I also believe that the SG are aware and hopefully prepared , the point I was making , as wingers we try to expose and inform people and spread as much info as possible , but unfortunately there are multitudes of people out there who are not receiving the WINGS exposure and information .
Hence my request that Nicola highlight and expose this threat publicly and vociferously , to inform the unwary ( possible don’t knows ) just how radio rental and dangerous this shower of eejits are becoming , effectively threatening martial law , Erdogan Turkey anyone

Those who are correcting ken, do we not all know that he spouts stream of consciousness pish? If we corrected all his nonsense, we would kill BTL on this site. Just ignore, I don’t think of him as a troll, just spam.

Now that makes it even more interesting. Even these days, you do expect a measure of due diligence from so-called professional journalists of the so-called quality press. The funding thing is so elementary a public fact that you would expect prior knowledge of it to inform the entire article as originally written.

But not so handy if you’re trying to push a party line, of course.

Which makes me all the happier to be an ex-subscriber of that “progressive” paper with a bad case of self-induced short-sightedness. (Cancelling my sub was my very first act of “discarding the master’s tools”.)

Looking at the recent poll it would seem the only block to independence sits with the over 55 age group. This is the group that probably gets most from free prescriptions, and exclusively from the free personal care.

Staying with the UK is going to put pressure on Scotland’s finances. If the over 55’s want the UK then I would give them the UK policies, that means ending free prescriptions and personal care. The money needs to go on Scotland’s future, so education needs to be protected. Sounds tough but I sit in this age group and will affect me, but we can’t keep taking the SNP policy benefits but choose Tory rule from Westminster at no personal cost.

I link it because – it has NOTHING in it worth a damn, but it illustrates something about our fake friends and qualified-independence “supporters”.

Everything about it is bad – the convoluted tail-chasery, the flopping about, the smug style, written for the 105IQ pseud and chock full of absolutely meaningless sentences. Neither is it worth the time for a proper forensic dissection – even when you do it, they never learn anyway.

This is the angsty twee pseudo-left with its knickers in a twist about nothing very much and with no practical solutions, just maybe trying to get some course credits.

This is my point – I think this is why the Rev is so reviled in certain circles – he does not fiddle around with this kind of bumwankery – his writing is sharp, direct – facts and logic in organised rebuttal – like a centurion’s gladius it stabs and tears until there is nothing left of the subject.

There was, and is, a gang of people, a coterie, who see themselves as the “thought leaders” of the independence movement – but they are totally fucking useless and the example of the Rev, just getting stuck in and doing it, with far more positive results than they could ever hope for … it irks, it infuriates.

Gulty as charged, my brother and I did indeed partake of the *It’s M&S sticky buns* in Dumfries that day and a fine day it was too because it was my brothers first march and he fair enjoyed it as he lives along the Galloway tourist route and a lot less Scots live in his neck of the woods now so a good chance for him to be amongst YES voters for the day

I also took him to Stirling and he’s mad keen now on doing them all now, trouble is my 15 year old grandaughter has joined the party now and she wants to come too but she’s in a wheelchair and I’m not long for 70 and my brother’s 73,
my daughter’s in the party too and she would come and push the wheelchair but she can’t pass a restaurant or a toilet or a pub without having to sample the hospitality of all three and if there happens to be any steep hills we’re gubbed cos me and my brother would be pushing the chair and carrying my daughter over our shoulders while trying to wave our flags at the same time

So there’s me wae a sair leg and my brother wae his sore back a wheelchair wae an over excited teenager and a cannae walk daughter cos a need the lavvy in tow

I was wishing, more in hope than expectation that England would win the World Cup because the inevitable reaction to that by the EMSM would have been immeasurably valuable to the cause of normal levels of self government for Scotland in the forthcoming indyref2.

I do believe you are not mistaken. Not only that but it was Scots who carried the game throughout the World including to South America. It was The Hibs who, along with, Riems who instigated The Fair Cities Cup but if you were to believe the English you would think I’m telling Porkies.

The truth is somewhat different from what the Englanders state and I quote-

“Hibernian Football Club (“Hibs”) is a Scottish football club, based in the Leith area of Edinburgh. Hibs were the first ever British club to enter an official European footballing competition, doing so in the inaugural 1955–56 season of the European Cup. They were also the first Scottish club to participate in the Fairs Cup, … The Inter-Cities Fairs Cup was also established in 1955, and in 1960 Hibs … “

How do I know the truth? Because I was there. A teenage lad and Hibs daft and the first time ever abroad on the main continent of Europe.

However, if you google Fairs Cities Cup you will have a hard job getting the truth for England claims they were the instigators and the Fair Cities involved were cities with trade fares. The main fair that gave the name Was the spanking new Edinburgh Festival of the Arts. The only thing the Englanders got right was that the games between Reims & Hibs eventually led to the European Cup and the first UK team to win that was the Glasgow Celtic with the Lisbon Lions.

I agree that it is a pretentious article, but also really interesting. The chat that Scotland is colonised does not land with so many of us, especially after our colonial past is so clear, this is well explored.

The homoerotic nature of the of the trainspotting quote is something that never struck me in the multiple watchings of that film.

Robert peffers, have you read? Interesting take on Scots history for you.

It’s a fairly basic error but understandable if for a split second he forgot which jersey he was wearing.

Apparently teams who play in red have a slight advantage. That’s due to it being registered slightly faster. There’s also going to be an element of how fast you clock your own teammates. Radically changing the fundamental appearances of your strips every year is a recipe for disaster. A minimal bit of training in the alternate top might be handy. A radical idea might be to get teams to adopt one or other of the national strips as an away one. That might cause more chaos. The essential is to train to spot your teammates reliably and quickly.

Some unique high contrast, at least as far as peripheral vision is concerned, pattern would also help.

Thing is, Gfaetheblock, I followed the game when at the likes of Easter road there were regularly official attendance figures in excess of 40,000. In the year I was born there was this –

Celtic v Aberdeen at Hampden on 24 April 1937. The 147,365 attendance is the largest ever for a domestic match in Europe.

At Tynecastle the crowds were smaller but only because there was no room for expanding the ground. At Hibs they had what was originally used as a car park and for years it was known as, “The Hibs dump”, because they created a large banking in that car park and terraced it.

However, the crowd figures were never right in those days for youngsters were lifted over the turnstiles and we laddies would just stand and wait out turn to be lifted over. Mind you many dads and big brothers lifted their kin over but there was no shortage of adults for unaccompanied kids.

BTW: there was two other senior clubs in Edinburgh back then from lowed divisions – Edinburgh City & Leith Athletic. Edinburgh City eventually became Ferranti Thistle before morphing into Livingston FC.

Anyways, the point is to be positive about Scotland, and I think, we should all slag off the media for its negativity, when, for instance, the Scottish Rugby team has a famous victory and the Herald tiddlywinker who clearly didn’t even watch the game, probably too busy tiddling his winker, gives the players 6 out of 10 and is full of oh Scotland haven’t winked our tiddlies since diddly squat.

I think all these negative people are unsatisfied winkers and are diddling their paymasters. Back in your corner Scotland, get back down there and stay down there.

As a very astute observer of human nature once said, “well, you would say that, wouldn’t you”. It’s hardly surprising that resident BritNats like you attempt to deny the post-colonial reality of Scotland.

Though you may be right in the sense that there are still many Scots who are in a sorry state of ignorance over it, underpinned as it is by the unjustified assumption that we’re all “equals” in this “best of all possible worlds” UK.

But even Mundell doesn’t believe that any more. If he can get it, anyone can.

Classic negotiating tactic – seem disappointed and hint at possible problems ahead.
The other party then doesn’t drive such hard bargain because they’re scared they’ll get no deal, the dismayed party then successfully gets a ridiculous deal that there is no way would have been accepted initially without the subtle bit of scaremongeringl

Universal Suffrage 1928. Scotland out voted 10 to 1. By secrecy and lies. Some democracy. Thatcher etc. Blair. Now May. Illegal wars, financial fraud and tax evasion. Labour/LibDem no opposition. Killing and starving the citizens. Worldwide. Blame people who do not have a vote. Violence. Brexit mess. Total chaos.

It pains me to do this to the normally excellent Mr Peffers, but, in your post at 10.45pm last night,you were guilty of spreading fake news.

The Inter-Cities Fairs Cup was a co-production between England, Italy and Switzerland and the first running of it lasted over three years. Basel v London was the first tie to be played, in June, 1955, with the two-legged final not played until March and May, 1958.

That first competition was indeed limited to cities which hosted international trade fairs – hence the inclusion of a London team, which drew, over the length of the competition, players from 11 different London clubs. This competition was not run by UEFA.

The Hibs v Reims games to which you refer were semi-final matches in the inaugural European Cup, which was run by UEFA. That European Cup ran across season 1955-56, with Hibs beating Rot-Weiss Essen of West Germany and Djurgarden of Sweden en route to that semi-final loss to Reims, who in turn lost to Read Madrid in the final.

Hibs were indeed the first Scottish club to play in the Fairs Cup, in 1960-61, reaching the semi-final, where they lost to Roma, who went on to beat Birmingham City in the final. That Birmingham team, incidentally, included future Lisbon Lion and Hibs manager Bertie Auld.

The obsequious Tory MP for Cumnock just told Gary Robertson that Boris Johnson is a “wild canon, as we say in Scotland!” Is this Cumnockese or whit. A “total fanny” is what we say in Scotland & that would fit both Boris & Grant! Morning all.

What a carry on. The Tory Trump affair. Globemasters were flying into Scotland. Full of navy seals. If they start patrolling, They will be told where to go. Trump and the son can clear off. How many police do they need? He has flown in, out before relatively unnoticed. Unbelievable.

People are dying on the streets while this carrying on is going on. Totally over the top.

The US is the most protectionist market in the world. Spending far too much on arms. Killing and maiming all around the world. US multinationals, making vast profits, paying no tax at all worldwide. The EU will be sorting that out. Any trade war puts up prices for consumers worldwide. Mad cow came from Alabama. Cost £Billions and ruined the farming sector. Taxpayers had to bail out the mess and pick up the tab. Not lower prices. Up in smoke. On the pyres. No exports for over ten years.

Boris Johnston the criminal. The Tories are in decline, especially in Scotland. They could not make a bigger mess. What a shower of psycho bastards. The sooner they go the better. Labour/LibDem are useless. No opposition. The Tories would have been gone by now without their collusion. May the sychophant. No one wants the poison chalice. The nasty, low life, lying Tories. Chaos.

Aidan O’Neil QC who stated an Indy Ref would and should never take place.The anger and disgust at the EU Ref outcome. The people in Scotland voted for EU membership and remain. Lucrative EU Human Rights business. No human rights for Scotland’s EU citizens. Just dishonestly and collusion to deny their rights again.

The Westminster unionists, the US and France caused the migration crisis in Europe wih their illegal wars. Bombing the world to bits. Costing the EU/world countries £Billions.

I note your disparaging remarks about the sainted Bill Grant MP this morning.

You are perhaps unaware of the fact, Mr Grant comes from the village of Rankinston. There is only one working brain cell to go round the entire village, passed around on a daily basis.

It has been a few years since Bill has had use of it, and he is currently well down the queue to have use of it again.

He is, as they say in Rankinston: “As thick as shite in the neck o’ a bottle.”

Mr Grant is one of those Scots Tories who benefitted from a double whammy, the SNP MP he replaced was particularly useless, while his seat was one covered by the agreement that Labour would only field an even-more useless “paper” candidate against him and the in-built Tory majority in the Carrick part of his constituency carried him home.

I know former miners and Labour stalwarts in this constituency who are outraged at being represented by a Tory, particularly one as useless as Mr Grant.

I dare say, as the local MP, he will be crawling up Fluffy’s erse to be photographed with the Orangeman this weekend. He’s a wee nyaff.

May and Trump coveniently not stating who caused the world migration crisis. The administrations they represent. Illegally killing maiming and displacing people worldwide. The sychophants line their pockets on people’s misery. A total disgrace. The EU will hold them to account.

O/T
Listened to Radio Put Scotland Down this morning on the way to work.
A spokes-person for the GMB union was on talking about BiFab and boy did he take every opportunity to have a dig at the Scottish Government (i.e. The SNP).
It was so blatant and obvious.

Now BiFab and the lack of orders, the jobs situation etc, is tragic and worrisome, but the context needs to be understood and cheap shots at the Scottish Government should not be taken.

So Mr GMB Union, remember that London controls the purse strings.

London has responsibility for the economy.

And one other thing Mr GMB Union; in my place of work, there are posters and other literature very evident encouraging people like me to join the GMB.

Now why would I do a thing like that when the GMB is hell bent on doing down my country, the legally elected Scottish Government and clearly NOT tackling the Tory government in London that is ultimately responsible for all the societal harm currently causing mayhem to a very large number of people?

I can only conclude that the GMB is very comfortable with a Tory Government creating chaos with people’s lives.

I had a lie-in this morning and upon waking to my bedside radio alarm set-to Radio Jockland the first thing The BBC, (Biased Broadcasting Corporation), was lying. via, Stephen Jardine, that the USA was the World’s biggest economy.

Now, discounting the claim of China, the actual largest economic block in the World is The European Union.

Factually the USA “might”, have a claim to be the largest single country with the largest economy but even that is arguable.

Here is the truth:-

“Since its formation in 1993, the European Union1 (EU) has become larger than any individual economy in the world, with its GDP surpassing the USA’s in 2003, for the first time since 1998, as shown in Figure 1. Despite this, the EU’s share of global GDP has fallen from 30% in 1993 to 24% in 2013. This is because growth in non-EU economies has outpaced growth of EU economies, mainly driven by strong growth in the BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China) economies.”

British Nationalists in Scotland very angry today because we won’t do what President Donald Trump tells us to do, after all we should be listening to him as he’s a bigger and better bully than apparently the EU bullies that the Britnats don’t like

British Nationalists in Scotland want the proper kind of bully one who speaks his mind and gets things done, when Trump says he’s going to throw out the nasty foreign dark dangerous people he gets right on and does it AND cages up the little foreign brats to boot, yes Trump’s the guy for the Britnats alright

We want a bullying ally who speaks English say the Britnats in Scotland, it’s not that we’re against foreigners ourselves say the Britnats but be fair, we just don’t really want the Bastirts here they say

We don’t want to be just another country in the world say the British Nationalists, we want to be big and powerful and srtong enough to bomb other people to death when we want to, not that we will, they say, we just want to have the power to do it, they add

So Scotland and everybody else should respect President Trump because he’s bigger than us and we need him and America to protect us and keep us safe from the rest of the world say the British Nationalists in Scotland, because nobody likes us say the British Nationalists, everywhere

People, migrants and refugees are treated badly and suffer in the UK. Westminster deports people illegally and detains people illegally for years. The protesters should go to 10 Downing Street,. Or are they banned. Westminster administration has taken 1000 refugees and housed them in the north of England. The US has taken 22,000 well heeled Iraqi refugees. Out of the millions displaced in the Middle East by the illegal actions. 30,000 unaccompanied children were rejected. Scottish courts can overrule Westminster illegal actions.

The US is one of the most protectionist countries in the world. US Gov. puts funds into R & D. Through patents and copyright create monopolies and charge what they like. US multinationals make vast profits and pay no tax worldwide. They break fair trade rules and Laws. Including US Law. Putting up prices for consumers worldwide.

Trump should sort out the US instead of creating more problems in Europe. Stop the illegal bombing and displacement of the millions in the Middle East. The illegal support for Israel. Breaking International Law with impunity. Support people instead of destroying places.

Brexiteers are in turmoil, this seems to include the BBC, that Trump has threatened no trade deal. To my this is the best news I’ve heard for some time, no need to consume some of their dubious food products, looks like a win-win result there.

Of course I do feel sorry for the UK cabinet members and MP’s that see their potential millions taking a hit. But they are only interested in themselves, we are disposable to them.

Expect Farage to pop up even more often on the BBC, the EU exit is not going to plan.

The Daily Record twists the polling numbers again today by declaring that because less people dislike Ruth Davidson in Scotland that results in her being voted most popular politician, what they fail to mention is that when you look again at the Records version of those numbers you see that about 38% of the Scottish population either don’t know who she is or don’t care whereas everybody knows who the First Minister of Scotland Nicola Sturgeon is from here to Timbuktu and in actual fact her approval rating in Scotland is higher by around 10%

I’m sure all the people who have never heard of Ruth Davidson or don’t care who Ruth Davidson is agree with the Daily Record that she should be the next First Minister

The Daily Record a comic that caters for folk who have to use their remaining teeth to count on when their fingers run out

@Dr Jim 10.28 pm: now that you mention it, there have been a large number of people in wheel-chairs at these marches too, including a piper. The effort and commitment they display on these occasions is on a different level and quite inspiring.

Meanwhile, in other news, it seems Trump has stabbed The Maybot in the front with a speech probably penned by the odious Farage.

Normally you would be quite sorry for someone getting the ides of March treatment from people who are supposed to be on your side but I’m afraid this is the Rats in a Sack endgame many here predicted.

Whenever I see Treeza and her stretched Arthur Askey of a husband I can truly believe aliens walk among us.

Oh God I was right Farage is to get more TV exposure
They wouldn’t buy Alex Salmonds show because they said he was too divisive a figure and wanted control of his output and he said NO yet Farage is just fine and dandy and defo in line with BBC production values

I’m afraid I find it rather fanciful to imagine that our international side stands comparison with Croatia.
Three main reasons: Rakatic, Mandzukic and Modric (And there are a few others). When did we last produce players of this calibre? The only player from the entire British Isles who could live in that company at the moment is Gareth Bale and the last one Scotland produced was probably Kenny Dalglish.
The reasons you might wonder? Take a stroll down to the playing fields (If there are any left!)in your home towns on these long summer days and nights. Stop and gaze upon the empty expanses before you and wonder no more.

The Icelanders I met, signed a register including surnames, also replicated on passports. They sneered at Scotland ever becoming indy, saying ‘you’re frightened’ and ‘Scotland belongs to England’. They had waiting staff in tears with misogynistic comments.Sure, there must be many thousands of very nice Icelanders.

Their perverted penchant for cynically killing highly intelligent whales, barbarically, leaves me cold.It’s not a country I feel any affinity towards. Like Japan, Iceland says its for ‘research’. Most is sold to tourists. The Icelandic Govt says whales are not endangered and their numbers have increased to record breaking numbers.On the decline of whales in their waters they say,

“For quite some time we couldn’t figure out from the Norwegian and Greenlanders’ counting where the minke whale had disappeared to. As we had only been hunting approximately 30-50 animals a year, we were at a loss to understand how the stock could have decreased from 40,000 animals to 10,000 animals in eight years. Then, this summer, we had good news. The minke whales hadn’t disappeared, they had only got lost. The Norwegians had spotted a massive volume of minke whales around Jan Mayen. They had never seen anything like it. We realized the “Icelandic” minke whale stock had been found.”

The International Whaling Commission disagrees:

‘Icelandic whalers have slaughtered more than 35,000 whales since the late nineteenth century. Iceland refuses to recognise the IWC moratorium on commercial whaling and currently allocates its whalers a quota to kill endangered fin whales mostly for export, as well as minke whales to service domestic demand, mostly from tourists.’

There is no reason why we shouldn’t qualify, I think it does come down to self belief, I watched a lot of teams in the group stages wondering why they were there instead of us.

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